Students and faculty from Unquowa School, in Fairfield, dig holes and plant sea grass on the beach at Stratford Point, in Stratford, Conn. April 21, 2017.

STRATFORD — It was not the most pleasant assignment for grade-school kids, but it still was a little better than algebra class.

About 70 children from the Unquowa School and another 30 from the Fairfield Country Day School found themselves on a windswept beach at Stratford Point on Friday morning. Their Earth Day assignment: Dig small holes in the tidal muck and plant 16,000 plugs of salt marsh grass as part of a years-long effort to restore that stretch of shorefront to the way it looked prior to human meddling.

Huddled up against a March-like bluster and looking at first like a penguin colony in a blizzard, they soon made the best of the situation after getting instructions from Professor Jennifer Mattei, of Sacred Heart University, and other adults on how to efficiently dig and plant.

“You have to work quickly,” Mattei said. “Push down on the shovel like this, then rock it back and forth, then move on to the next hole. We have a lot of plugs to plant, so don’t take a lot of time.”

Mattei has become something of the face of Stratford Point. Three years ago, she spearheaded an effort to install dozens of reef balls — hollow concrete half-spheres — designed to absorb wave energy and provide a habitat for bivalves, seaweed and other tidal life.

“Every year we do a project for Earth Day, but this is the first time we’ve been down here,” said Katie Brenna, a Spanish teacher at Unquowa.

The beach, usually off limits had been owned by the Remington Gun Club, and it’s still owned by DuPont, Remington’s owner, which was engaged in an effort to clean up the lead shot — some 2,400 tons of it — sitting on the bottom of the inlet at the time the club closed in 1986 after about 65 years of operation.

The lead cleanup project was completed in 2001. Remington was a sponsor of Friday’s marsh grass planting effort. Another sponsor was the Soundview Brewing Co. of Old Lyme, which later in the day was serving samples of suds to adult volunteers.

Later in the day, a number of students from SHU showed up to help out. Another group volunteering was Lordship Cub Scout Pack 74, among others. The marsh grass planting effort is scheduled to continue on Saturday, which is Earth Day.

“It’s a very cool experience, because we’re getting something done besides sitting in class and looking at a Smart Board,” said Unquowa eighth-grader Aaron Gruen, of Weston.

“The kids were pretty stoked to come out here,” said Unquowa fifth-grade teacher Mary Faulkner. “The children had been learning about climate change and the rising sea levels, so they were really excited to get going.”